496 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 243, 



In comparing the habit and vitality of the tree in the best 

 varieties with tiie poorer ones, it must be borne in niind that 

 a tender, or weak-growing, or unproductive tree which bears 

 poor fruit is unfit for cultivation, and such varieties do not 

 often appear in the fruit lists. But, on the other hand, such 

 trees are often cultivated because of some superior quality of 

 tlie fruit. So it happens that the poorest trees and least pro- 

 ductive ones described in our manuals are apt to produce fruits 

 of tlie highest quality, and growers are apt to enlarge this cir- 

 cumstance into a generalization. But, the fact that Winter Nelis 

 is a poor grower, that the Delaware Vine is slender and particu- 

 larly liable to mildew, and tliat the Newtown Pippin is unreli- 

 able, is many times overbalanced by the vigorous growth and 

 productiveness of Anjou, Catawba and Northern Spy and 

 many others. In fact, a study of the dessert fruits in this 

 catalogue will show that over eighty per cent, are hardy, 

 vigorous and productive. In regard to the notion that the 

 best fruits are usually short-lived, I have only to say that there 

 are positively no facts to support it. 



It is also generally believed that market fruits are either poor 

 or indifferent in quality, but here again facts do not warrant 

 the belief. It must be remembered that many of the best 

 dessert fruits are cultivated solely for the sake of the one char- 

 acter of high quality, while the best market fruits are culti- 

 vated for a variety of features, as size and color of fruit, vigor, 

 hardiness and productiveness of the tree, and quality is usually 

 not considered. Market fruits and dessert fruits are not, there- 

 fore, strictly comparable. But if there are any good market 

 fruits which are at the same time good dessert fruits, we shall 

 be obliged to admit that market qualities and table qualities 

 are not incompatible. Of the 219 varieties of apples cata- 

 logued by Mr. Lyon, nineteen are rated nine and ten for mar- 

 ket. Of these, six, or about one-third, also rate nine and ten 

 for the dessert, as follows: Golden Russet, Hubbardston, 

 Jonathan, Northern Spy, Peck's Pleasant and Rhode Island 

 Greening. Of these six, four rate the same for both table and 

 market and two rank one higher for market than for table. 

 Moreover, there are four other varieties which rank as high as 

 eight in quality, wdiich is two points higher than the Baldwin. 

 Of the ten best market blackberries, four are included in 

 the select dessert lot. Fourteen cherries rate nine and 

 ten for market, and just half of them are in the select 

 list. Of the eight best market currants, however, only 

 one is rated high for dessert, but the currant has not been de- 

 veloped in the direction of high quality. Of the four market 

 gooseberries, two are in the other list. Mr. Lyon admits but 

 six market grapes, of which one is a superior table fruit. Of 

 the market peaches, nearly one-fourth are dessert fruits. One- 

 fourth of the market pears rank highest for dessert, while one- 

 third of the remainder rank as high as eight, which is the rating 

 of the Bartlett and Sheldon. One-seventh of the best market 

 plums are best for dessert, and nearly a third rank eight. Of 

 the dozen best market raspberries, one-fourth are best table 

 sorts, while half of them rank eight. Over a third of the mar- 

 ket strawberries are dessert varieties. All these facts show 

 conclusively that high quality is not incompatible with that 

 combination of characters which makes a fruit good for mar- 

 keting, and they show that a very large proportion of our 

 market fruits actually are dessert fruits. And if we take the 

 average quality of all the fruits ranking nine and ten for mar- 

 ket we find it to stand uniformly at seven or above for dessert, 

 or higher than medium quality. Thus the average table rating 

 of all the high market apples is 7.1, or over one point higher 

 than the Baldwin. The average of the market blackberries is 

 8.5. This instance is particularly interesting, because the 

 blackberry is probably the fruit oftenest cited as decreasing 

 in quality in proportion as it is increased in size. Cherries 

 average 7.3, and grapes 7.8. Peaches average 7.6, which is 

 higher than the rating of Late Crawford, Barnard and other 

 standard sorts. Market pears stand at 7.7, or higher than An- 

 gouleme, Flemish Beauty, Superfine and Louise Bonne. 

 Plums average seven. Raspberries give an average of 7.8. 

 Strawberries are eight, which is the rating of Kentucky, Miner, 

 Ohio, Sharpless and Charles Downing. It is impossible to 

 construe these facts to mean anything else than that all desira- 

 ble characters of fruits may progress simultaneously. 



In this connection we should discuss the popular notion that 

 the berry fruits decrease in quality when they are brought into 

 cultivation, because the decrease is supposed to be due to in- 

 crease of size and vigor. Most people think of the wild straw- 

 berries and blackberries of youthful rambles as possessing 

 unusual sweetness and aroma ; and I do not doubt that it is 

 true, even allowing for the exaggeration of retrospect, that wild 

 berries are sweeter than those which we commonly obtain 

 from the garden. But I know of no reason for believing that 



wild fruits are actually sweeter than tame ones. I am con- 

 vinced that it is mostly a question of ripeness. To be sure, 

 there may be cultivated varieties inferior in quality to some 

 wild berries, but, as a rule, I do not believe that cultivation has 

 had the effect of decreasing quality. I have given particular 

 attention to this question this year with blackberries, which are 

 very generally considered to have lost sweetness by transfer to 

 the garden. Among garden varieties I have studied Agawam, 

 Early Cluster, Early Harvest, Ancient Briton, Snyder and 

 Stone, and two of these are rated as low as eight for dessert by 

 Mr. Lyon, while the poorest varieties go only as low as seven. 

 In the study of wild berries, I visited a region which I had 

 known in boyhood, and which I have always remembered be- 

 cause of its great and luscious blackberries. But the compari- 

 son was greatly in favor of the tame berries if they are allowed 

 to remain upon the bushes until ripe. In the wild patches we 

 practice an unconscious choice, and pick only those berries 

 which please us. We pick the ripest and the best. It is no- 

 ticeable, also, that we pick the largest, and base our judgment 

 upon them, while we should find the best quality in the small- 

 est berries if our assumed logic is sound. Cultivated berries, 

 when marketed, are necessarily picked before they are ripe, 

 and they never reach their full quality. And even when picked 

 for table use, blackness in the blackberry and redness in the 

 strawberry are usually considered as measures of ripeness. 

 But the true measure of ripeness is softness. A well-grown 

 fully ripe blackberry, which falls into the hand when the clus- 

 ter is shaken, possesses a tenderness, juiciness and sweetness 

 which I have rarely found in a wild berry. And the same is 

 true, in my experience, of strawberries and'raspberries. 



But we do not need to rely upon individual tastes, for all 

 chemical examinations which I have been able to find show 

 that sweetness increases with the increase or intensification of 

 culture. This would seem to be almost necessarily the case, 

 because the ultimate aim of cultivation is to supply more food 

 to the plant, and this food in fruits is largely potash, which 

 bears a definite ratio to sugar. Dr. Stone reports a series of 

 interesting experiments in this direction at the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College. " A wild specimen of Vitis Labrusca 

 (our common Wild Grape) was torn apart at its root ; one-half 

 was left in its natural condition, the other transplanted to cul- 

 tivated ground and treated with nitrate of potash and bone 

 superphosphate. At the end of three years fruit from the cul- 

 tivated vine contained twelve per cent, more potash and 

 twenty per cent, more sugar than that from the wild one." 

 Analysis of wild and cultivated strawberries showed a great in- 

 crease in potash in the cultivated variety. "But the change 

 was not confined to the mineral elements alone, for the same 

 analysis showed that the proportion of sugar to acid in the 

 wild species is as two to one, while in the cultivated varieties 

 it is increased to six to one or more." Dr. Stone further de- 

 clares that " potash fertilizers have decidedly improved the 

 desirable qualities of fruits. Wherever the percentage of this 

 element has been raised, the change is accompanied by an in- 

 crease of sugar and decrease of acid." Dr. Stone has made 

 a subsequent examination of the chemical composition of 

 strawberries at the Tennessee experiment station, and he finds 

 that, "in the varieties examined, the proportion of acid to 

 sugar was i to 3.5. For the wild strawberry, the only refer- 

 ences available, and these very meagre, show a corresponding 

 proportion of i to 2. This indicates that a change for the 

 better has been made, but it is far from probable that the 

 limit has been reached." Fresenius gives the sugar in culti- 

 vated strawberries as 7.5 per cent., and the free acid as 1.13, 

 and in the wild berries as 3.2 and 1.6 per cent, respectively. 

 Cultivated raspberries, according to the same authority, con- 

 tain 4.7 per cent, of sugar and 1.3 per cent, of acid, while wild 

 ones contain 3.5 per cent, of sugar and 1.9 of acid. Parsons 

 finds that sugar increases rapidly in oranges as they depart 

 from the wild type, although free acids do not show a corre- 

 sponding decrease. Thus the wild bitter-sweet of Florida con- 

 tains .84 of cane-sugar and 5.71 of glucose ; the sour, .97 cane- 

 sugar and 3.36 glucose ; the common oranges, 4.38 and 4.60 

 respectively ; russets, 4.51 and 7.29 ; mandarin, 8.07 and 4.77. 

 The figures and experiences uniformly show that amelioration 

 in other qualities is accompanied by an increased sweetness ; 

 and every one who has tested seedling or wildling fruits can 

 bear testimony to the same fact. 



But if all statistics show that high quality does not proceed 

 at the expense of other characters, practical experience in the 

 origination of fruits shows it as well. As a matter of fact, 

 seeds of small or low-color fruits, or from tender or unpro- 

 ductive varieties, do not givg a larger proportion of varieties 

 of high quality than seeds from large, highly colored and vig- 

 orous kinds. And it is here worthy of remark that while most 



